With the deployment of networks that use third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) wireless technologies such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defined Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Long Term Evolution (LTE), wireless mobile devices, such as smart phones, can operate at a wide range of data rates based on the capability of the network and the device. Wireless devices that provide wireless communications capabilities, such as mobile devices, personal digital assistants, smart phones, handheld computers, tablet computers, and fixed or integrated wireless systems are referred to herein as User Equipment (UE). The initial version of 3GPP WCDMA, also known as 3GPP release 99, provided a maximum uplink and downlink data rate of 384 kbps. A new downlink shared channel called High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) was introduced in 3GPP release 5 to increase the peak downlink date rate to 14 Mbps. The uplink data rate is improved by introduction of Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) also known as High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) in 3GPP release 6 where uplink data rates of 5.7 Mbps is attainable. Both uplink and downlink data rates were increased further in 3GPP release 7 via higher order modulation—the peak downlink and uplink rates being 21 Mbps and 11.5 Mbps respectively. As of Release 9, there are 28 HSDPA UE categories while HSUPA provides 9 different categories with each UE category providing a particular maximum data rate or range of data rates. The allocation of maximum radio resources by the network depends on a number of criteria—one being the capability of the UE (e.g. if UE supports just R99 feature set, R99+HSDPA or R99+HSDPA+HSUPA) and UE category (e.g. HSDPA category 8, HSUPA category 6) that device UE indicates to the network. The allocation of radio resources which is deemed as unnecessarily high for the requirements of underlying application or data connection can lead to needlessly high consumption of device resources on the UE, inefficient usage of network resource or unacceptable quality-of-service (QoS) for a given application.
Accordingly, a method and apparatus that enables improved performance in wireless devices by requesting suitable radio resources for a given connection remains highly desirable.
It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.